Spain

The Ministry of Health of the Community of Madrid has published an “Integrated plan for the consideration of unwanted pregnancies in the Community of Madrid 2017-2010” in which they propose to prioritise the use of medical abortion over the use … Continued

On 25 November 2016, the Campaign newsletter reported the case of “Paula” from Galicia, who in 2012 had learned seven months into her pregnancy, due to errors during antenatal diagnosis, that the fetus she was carrying had an anomaly … Continued

In as far as the regulation of abortion deals with issues like how and to what extent can women’s capacity to gestate and give birth be controlled, and by whom, any discourse on abortion necessarily reflects a construction of women’s citizenship, hence of gender. The question is, which is the ruling construction? Behind non-legal discourses that focus on human life and public power’s duty to protect it, there lies the modern construction of gender that articulates women’s passive citizenship within the state. This is also true of confrontational discourses that construct women and the fetus as potential adversaries. Both discourses are traditional in continental Europe. Yet, they are being superseded by an understanding of abortion from the perspective of women’s active citizenship. Spanish Organic Act 2/2010 stands as part of this trend. Not surprisingly, governmental attempts to reinstate women’s passive citizenship in this matter have met stark resistance.

This article explores obstetricians-gynaecologists’ experiences and attitudes towards abortion, based on two mixed-methods studies respectively undertaken in Italy in 2011–2012, and in Spain (Cataluña) in 2013–2015. Short questionnaires and in-depth interviews were conducted with 54 obstetricians-gynaecologists at 4 hospitals providing abortion care in Rome and Milan, and with 23 obstetricians-gynaecologists at 2 hospitals and one clinic providing abortion care in Barcelona.

The Spanish Federation of Family Planning (FPFE) and Médicos del Mundo (Doctors of the World) have prepared this report jointly with the Alliance for Solidarity, National Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals (FELGTB), Forum for Feminist Politics, Shadow CEDAW Platform, and others, and presented it recently in Madrid.

The health system in Galicia, northwest Spain, was ordered to compensate a woman who lost her uterus after a hospital refused to do an abortion as an emergency obstetric procedure and sent her 354 miles to Madrid, so that she nearly lost her life. The events happened four years ago.

La Asociación de Abogados Cristianos (Christian Lawyers Association), an anti-abortion group, failed to provide evidence in court to support its accusations against four abortion clinics in Madrid in September this year. Jose Antonio Bosch, who represented the Association of Abortion Clinics (ACAI), argued that this group were abusing the criminal justice system just to get headlines in the press.

by Marge Berer The history of the persecution of Dr Carlos Morín, former director of the Ginemedex clinic in Barcelona, Spain, the staff of his clinic and the thousands of women who had abortions there began in Britain in 2004 … Continued

The Spanish Ministry of the interior has revoked the public value status of the Spanish Family Planning Federation, following a complaint by an ultra conservative Catholic group. Please support their call to reinstate their status.